State Bureau, Lucknow. Now consumers will have to pay the full price of smart prepaid meters. Ministry of Energy, Government of India has issued a letter related to this to the Electricity Regulatory Commissions. Following the instructions of the Ministry, it is considered certain to increase the electricity rates in the tariff order to be announced for the next year 2026-27. In the new system, power companies will bear the entire cost of smart prepaid meters from all consumers.
Consumer Council President Awadhesh Kumar Verma has sent a protest letter on this to the Union Energy Secretary and Union Energy Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. A copy has also been given to the Electricity Regulatory Commission. Through the letter a demand has been made to withdraw this decision. It is written that this is a fraud on all the electricity consumers of the country. All consumer organizations of the country will come together on one platform in protest.
He has said that the consumers have already paid for the meters which were installed in the consumer premises at the time of connection. Till now, no money is being charged for removing the old meters installed in the consumers' premises and installing smart prepaid meters.
Now the Energy Ministry has issued an order to all the electricity regulatory commissions of the country saying that the entire expenditure on smart prepaid meters should be added to the consumers' tariff i.e. electricity rate. This simply means that electricity rates will increase in all states in the coming time. Both fixed charges and energy charges taken from consumers will increase.
He has told that about 3.62 crore electricity consumers in the state have already paid the entire cost of the meters installed in the premises to the electricity companies at the time of connection. If the average price of single phase meter of only three crore domestic consumers is considered to be Rs 872, then approximately Rs 2,616 crore has already been paid by the consumers.
If the cost of three phase meter is added, this amount reaches approximately Rs 3000 crore. By removing old meters and installing smart prepaid meters within the guarantee period, Rs 3000 crore of consumers will be wasted. In this way, consumers will be charged twice for the meters. The cost of smart prepaid meter is being recovered on new connections, later when the electricity rates increase, the cost of the meter will be recovered from these consumers again.
The Government of India had earlier issued guidelines saying that the cost of the entire infrastructure including smart prepaid meters should not exceed Rs 6,000 per meter, whereas tenders were awarded at the rate of Rs 8000 to Rs 9000 per meter. This additional cost will also be recovered from consumers through electricity tariffs.